Wildlife

Walleye in Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay carry less PCB contamination than a decade ago

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By Jeff Gillies
Nov. 24, 2009

Walleye swimming in Michigan’s largest watershed are 80 percent less contaminated with PCBs than they were in 1997, according to a study published recently in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. PCBs are toxic, potentially cancer-causing chemicals that were used in electrical insulators, hydraulic equipment and some paints. The U.S. and many other countries banned PCB production in the 1970s and 1980s

PCB levels in Saginaw Bay walleye have dropped 80 percent since 1997, said study author Chuck Madenjian, a fishery biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Science Center. He credits the drop to a dredging project in 2000 and 2001 that pulled more than 340,000 cubic yards of polluted sediment out of the Saginaw River, the bay’s main tributary.

Echo

Even the government answers to these citizens who protect the Wisconsin River’s scenery

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By Alice Rossignol
Nov. 13, 2009

There are few places where a government agency lines up for a permit just like everybody else. One of them is at the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board. Founded in 1989, the board is made up of Wisconsin citizens who enforce a series of aesthetic regulations along 92 miles of the Wisconsin River and nearly 80,000 acres of land. “The uniqueness to having a citizen board is that it represents the people who live in the area.

Echo

New tool from Canadian scientists predicts warmer Great Lakes water temperatures

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Jeff Gillies
jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 28, 2009

Great Lakes climate science is often stuck in the past. Studies show that all five lakes have warmed up over the past century. But they rarely predict how much the water will warm in the next one. A new tool from Canada could help buck that trend, warning policymakers of new threats from foreign organisms and other waterborne consequence of global climate change.

Echo

Meeting on lakes spotlights UT’s gains

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OH) The Toledo Blade – To the layman, a conference being held at the University of Toledo this week may appear to be just the latest in a confusing collection of Great Lakes events. But to those who intimately track the science behind the Earth’s largest source of fresh surface water, this week’s International Association of Great Lakes Research conference says a lot about UT’s ambition to become an academic powerhouse for environmental studies. 

It also illustrates how much more value northwest Ohio has started to place on the environment after years of neglect, from more fish and algae research to being reinvigorated – with the university’s help – by solar power and other forms of alternative energy that can help the lakes, officials said. More